Moving On : The rewrite
by KangarooGirl
Summary: Jesse's dead, the rest of the team have left him and all V's got left is a pop rock loving blonde doctor with problems of her own. Will she save him from himself or leave him just like everyone else he's ever loved?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer** - as usual I don't own anything you may recognise from the film, TFATF, those characters/situations/lines are the sole property of Universal Pictures and I've simply borrowed them for my own amusement. Anything you don't recognise from the film is mine, please don't take my ideas/characters without my express permission - if you ask, I may well let you borrow them but please respect the time and effort that I've put into creating and writing the original aspects of this story.

**A/N** - This is a rewrite of a story I first wrote at the beginning of 2005. I loved the original version but always felt something was missing from it. Hopefully this version will be just as well receieved as the original, let me know what you think.

I'd like to dedicate this story to the one person that's kept me going through this year and the only person who truely knows me - couldn't have done it without you baby and I'll be forever in your debt.

**Chapter 1**

"Chloe, Chloe are you there? Please, pick up. She's not there Dom, what shall I do?"

Chloe could barely make out Dom's response but as Mia then added to the message she figured that he must have told her to go ahead and leave a message.

"V and Jesse are in the hospital Chloe, it's all gone wrong. I need you to look after V and Jesse for me, the rest of us are heading to Mexico. Don't talk to the police and don't tell anyone where we are. I'll call you soon. Dom says the spare keys are under the grill in the back yard."

Chloe sat on her leather couch and pressed play on her answer machine to listen to the message for the forth time. She'd come home from a day studying in the library and couldn't quite believe what she was hearing. Mia sounded absolutely frantic and she could hear Dom shouting at her to hurry up. Based on what Mia had said and the traffic noise in the background she was calling from a roadside phone somewhere between LA and the Mexican border.

She'd not spoken to Mia for a few weeks, the younger girl hadn't been into classes since the time she pulled Chloe aside and told her about Harry's new delivery guy who kept eating her tuna sandwiches. She was totally taken with the guy and had been skipping classes to spend time with him.

15 minutes later Chloe was showered, changed and on her way to the house to try and find something that would tell her what Vince's last name was. She knew that Jesse was Jesse Andrews; he'd done some work on her car for her a few months earlier in return for her helping him with some insurance forms. The poor boy hadn't wanted Dom to know that he was back on Ritalin and Chloe had sorted out his insurance for him. Dom had always thought that Jesses ADHD was controlled purely by his love of engines but Chloe knew better – Jesse had gone back on Ritalin 2 months after she'd first met him and he'd have been back on it sooner if he hadn't been so worried what Dom would think of him.

It was almost dark when Chloe pulled up in front of the house but she could still see the bullet holes in Jesse's Jetta and the huge blood stain across the sidewalk. She'd never been on a drive along with the paramedics but she knew that a blood stain that large wasn't good. It looked as if someone had practically bled out on the sidewalk.

Ducking under the yellow crime scene tape Chloe headed down the drive to the backyard. Mia had said there were spare keys under the grill so she headed there first, desperately hoping that the police hadn't already found them. Without the keys she'd have no way of getting into the house and finding out Vince's surname. She knew that it would be hard enough getting information on Vince and Jesse even with their full names but without V's surname she didn't stand a chance. The way that Mia had said not to talk to the police had made it perfectly obvious that whatever the boys had been up to when they'd been hurt had been less than legal and Chloe just knew that she'd have to answer a whole barrage of questions before she could talk to them. All she could do was cross her fingers and hope that she could find everything she needed in the house to provide her with the answers to the police's questions.

As Chloe walked through the house she couldn't tell if they'd been burgled, searched by an over enthusiastic police team or just left in a hurry. The kitchen had been practically ripped apart; every single drawer had been pulled out and emptied on the table as if someone had been looking for something, the dresser where Chloe knew Mia kept important paperwork was empty and Mia's green leather bound phone book was no where in sight.

The family room wasn't much better, the shelves had been cleared of all photographs and there was nothing left to say that the occupants were planning on coming back. Everything personal had been removed from the room leaving just an empty shell. The normally lively house was just an empty shell and Chloe couldn't wait to get out of there. It was quite honestly giving her the creeps – she'd only been to the house a couple of times, once with Jesse when he'd gone to get something and once with Mia when she was picking her up for a late study group, but the house had always been loud and bursting with people.

Calling out a nervous 'hello' Chloe carefully made her way down the stairs to the basement. Jesse had often complained about Vince and Leon keeping him awake at night when they had company so she knew that she'd be able to find something with V's surname on downstairs. As she tripped on the stairs for the third time Chloe cursed Mia for getting her involved in this, they weren't exactly close and if it wasn't for the fact that it was Jesse and V that were hurt she wouldn't have got involved. Well, no, that was a lie, she'd have gotten involved no matter who was hurt, even if it had been Dominic as that was the sort of girl she was but she wouldn't have broken into a crime scene and searched an empty house with only the light on her cell phone for anyone less than Jesse and V.

After she'd joined the team at the beach she and Jesse had become very close friends, he'd work on her car for her and she'd help him with his medication and make sure he was eating properly. She'd even managed to involve him in the game of pop rocks tag that she and V had started playing. It had all been started by the packet of pop rocks she'd slipped into V's pocket at the beach and ever since then her and V had been sending each other packets of the sugar candy at least once a month. It hadn't taken V long to realise that Jesse was still in contact with Chloe and one day he'd simply handed the young man a paper bag and told him to make sure to give them to her. Chloe had been really touched by the gesture and the next time she'd been in the supermarket had bought another packet for V. After a couple of months she'd gotten bored of simply asking Jesse to give them to V and had started coming up with weird and wonderful places for Jesse to leave them. By far the best yet had been in V's car when he'd gone to get another tattoo. He'd not told anyone on the team where he was going but when he'd come back to his car there was a packet of raspberry pop rocks waiting on his seat for him.

He never did find out how Jesse had known where to find him or how he'd gotten into his car but he hadn't really cared. He'd not seen Chloe since the day at the beach and had only spoken to her on the phone once but he still counted her as a friend, someone he could rely on if he ever needed her and unbeknownst to him – Chloe felt exactly the same about him.

The first room Chloe found was obviously Jesse's – the pile of computer magazines and disks kind of gave it away, that and the dark green silk shirt that was hanging up on the wardrobe door. It had been Jesse's birthday a few months previously and Chloe had brought him the shirt for his birthday. He'd looked so handsome in it when she'd taken him out for a meal and she just hoped that she'd get to see him in it again. Despite the huge blood stain on the sidewalk and every medical instinct telling her how unlikely that was she couldn't let go of her hope – Jesse was the sweetest person she knew and he deserved so much more than dying on the sidewalk. As wrong as it was Chloe couldn't help hoping that it wasn't Jesse's blood on the sidewalk, that someone else had been caught up in the gunfire, but that still didn't explain what had happened to Jesse or whose blood it was. Mia had only mentioned that Jesse and V were hurt, she hadn't said how or if anyone one else was involved.

V's room was exactly as she'd expected – a huge bed in the middle of the room and piles of washing on the floor. She'd yet to meet a man who understood the simple concept of 'putting your clothes away' and Mia had often told her that she refused to go down into the basement for fear of what or rather who she might come across. It seemed that neither Le nor Vince were particularly shy about who they brought home and the last thing Mia wanted to face on a Sunday morning was a half dressed girl being given the brush off. The only thing even vaguely resembling tidy in V's room was his bedside cabinets – the piles of paperwork and sheet music offered Chloe some hope. She really didn't want to have to start going through drawers to find something with V's surname on, but she would if she had to. She had some latex gloves in the car so if push came to shove and she needed to go through anything too personal she was covered, the only thing she refused to go through was the waste paper bin. There wasn't enough money in the world to convince her to go through a single mans rubbish bin – just the mere thought of it made her stomach turn.

Luckily Chloe found what she was looking for halfway through the first pile of papers – a credit card statement in the name of Vincent Richards. As long as the hospital didn't insist that she fill out any paperwork for Vince she was covered, she knew his name but that was about it and she simply didn't have the time to search the house for a birth certificate or drivers licence for his date of birth. She'd just have to wing it and hope for the best. Thankful that she'd found enough to at least get information on Vince, Chloe quickly put the papers back on their original pile and went to leave the room. She'd barely gotten 3 steps across the room when she caught sight of something tucked into the side of V's mirror. Her heart was practically pounding in her ears as she crossed the room to get a closer look, it couldn't possibly be what she thought it was but as she got closer she realised that it was. It was a photo of the two of them, taken when she'd joined the team for a BBQ at the beach. Letty had been messing about with a camera and taking pictures of everyone but Chloe didn't remember this one being taken. It was of her and Vince standing at the waters edge, the surf just licking their toes and Vince had his head thrown back roaring with laughter. Chloe could almost hear him and she shivered as she felt that same tingle run down her spine as she had when they'd been at the beach. They'd been talking about Le's lack of tan lines and V had been telling her about the time that Letty caught Leon with her cousin in the office at the store. The way he'd described it had made it seem like something from a slapstick comedy and both of them had been crying with laughter by the time he'd gotten to the end of his tale.

Chloe gently ran her fingers over V's face as she tried once again to hold back the tears, only this time it wasn't tears of laughter and happiness. Ever since Mia's phone call Chloe had been filled with dread about what she'd find when she went to the hospital and seeing the huge blood stain on the sidewalk outside the house hadn't eased her fears at all, if anything it'd made them worse. 12 pints of blood, that's how much the average male had coursing through his veins and it looked as if at least half of that was soaked into the sidewalk. Either Jesse or Vince, or quite possibly both of them was seriously if not fatally injured and she was all they had left. The rest of the team had abandoned them and it was up to her to look after them, that's what Mia had said "Look after V and Jesse for me", so that's what she was going to do – look after the V and Jesse. Only she'd be doing it for them, not for Mia.

Chloe didn't have a clue where to go once she got to the hospital; she had no idea as to the nature of their injuries, only that they were serious. Figuring the ER was the best place to start Chloe said a quick prayer and headed to the Admissions desk. As usual the ER was heaving with patients and it was some time before Chloe got to the front of the queue.

"Hi, I'm looking for Vincent Richards and Jesse Andrews – I understand they were brought in earlier today."

The look on the clerk's face changed instantly from harassed to sympathetic and Chloe knew in that instant that one if not both of the boys were dead. She'd seen that look far too many times since she'd been in medicine and it never failed to make her feel sick. Just knowing that someone she cared for was lying on a slab in the mortuary made her blood run cold.

"I'm sorry, I can only give patient information out to family – are you related to either of the young men in anyway?"

"Vince and I are getting married next year and Jesse's his housemate. We're not blood related but I guess I'm all they've got." At that point Chloe would have claimed to have been their mother if it meant that she could find out what had happened to them. She knew all to well hospital policy on giving out patient information but with the team gone she really was all they had, in LA at any rate.

It took nearly 20 minutes for the admin clerk to find the doctor that had dealt with the boys when they'd been admitted and another 5 minutes to discover that Jesse was DOA and Vince was still in recovery after going through 4 hours of surgery. Chloe still didn't really know what had happened but somehow Jesse had ended up with multiple gunshot wounds and Vince had serious lacerations to his right arm and a shotgun wound to his left side. Chloe had known by looking at the Jetta that whatever had happened had been extremely violent but she was still shocked to hear the full extent of their injuries. Jesse had been shot 6 times and according to the doctor put up one hell of a fight but in the end his blood loss was simply too much. He'd been alone when the paramedics arrived at the house; the team had left him, left him to die on the sidewalk alone. He'd hung on long enough to ask the paramedics to tell Le that he was sorry before it'd all become too much for him. Nothing the paramedics had been able to do had been enough to bring him back and Jesse Alexander Andrews had died all alone, just months after his 21st birthday.

It took Chloe another 2 hours to get past the police officer guarding Vince's door. To start with she'd been told that V wasn't allowed visitors and it had taken Chloe some 30 minutes to convince him that she was perfectly entitled to see him as she was his fiancée and needed to see that he was ok. In the end some well timed tears had been all it took to get the police officer to contact his superiors and get permission for Chloe to enter V's room. Apparently Chloe reminded the officer of his own daughter and he couldn't bear to see her cry, even if the injured man she was trying to see wasn't worth her tears.

Chloe was starting to get desperate by the time Sgt Tanner arrived; she'd been assured by the officer guarding V's room that she'd be allowed in but that Sgt Tanner had some questions for her first. Chloe knew that someone needed to tell Vince about Jesse and she wanted to be that person. Well, no, that wasn't quite right – being the one to tell V that their friend was dead was the last thing she wanted but she couldn't let a stranger tell him. She'd been lucky enough to be able to count Jesse as a friend and she wasn't going to let a total stranger, someone who'd never even met the young man, tell Vince that he was dead.

To start with the questions had been pretty basic, who was she? What was her relationship with Vincent Richards? Where was Dominic Toretto? Did she know how Vince and Jesse came to get hurt? But then came the killer question, the one she hadn't been expecting – What did she know about the truck heists? As soon as Sgt Tanner mentioned the truck heists Chloe knew why Mia and the rest of the team had run to Mexico. Mia had said "don't talk to the police" and now Chloe knew why. Chloe knew that the team didn't exactly stick to the law, the street racing told her that much but she had no idea that they were behind the spate of hijackings that had covered the papers for the past few months.

"My name's Chloe Armstrong, Vince and I are getting married next year. I had a phone call from Mia Toretto telling me that the boys had been hurt and that they were here. That was all I knew until I got here and spoke to one of the doctors." Chloe still couldn't quite believe the way her day had turned out, it'd all started off so peacefully with a leisurely breakfast and a trip to the library and it was ending with her loosing a friend and lying to a police officer.

"I don't know where Dominic is and to be honest with you, I don't really expect to hear from him – we're not exactly what you'd call friends. You don't seriously think my Vince had anything to do with those truck heists do you? I know he's not a candidate for 'good citizen of the year' but even he's not that stupid. I'd leave him if he ever did anything that stupid and he knows it."

It took some convincing but eventually Sgt Tanner agreed to let Chloe in to see Vince, the only problem was – Chloe wasn't sure she actually wanted to see him. How the hell was she supposed to tell him that the rest of the team had run, Jesse was dead and she was all he had left? Not to mention that fact that they were now engaged to be married and she'd lied her ass off to the police for him.

She'd pretty much decided to wait until the doctor and nurses came out of V's room before she went in when she heard the most pain filled roar she'd ever heard in her entire life. She'd never heard anything like it, not even when she'd been working in the trauma centres in London had she ever heard anyone in so much pain and she was through the door and by V's bedside before Sgt Tanner had time to blink.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? Get away from him." Chloe kicked the nurse nearest to her and pushed her out of the way so that she could get to Vince. The poor bastard was not only in soft restraints but was being held down by two of the biggest orderlies she'd ever seen whilst a weasel faced doctor prodded and poked at the dressings on V's arm.

"I said – what the hell do you think you're doing?" Chloe was furious, Vince was obviously in agony and from what she could tell the nurses weren't doing anything to help him or ease his discomfort. Not that the doctor was any better, sure Chloe hadn't been in medicine that long but even she knew that inflicting pain on your patient wasn't something you were supposed to do as a doctor.

"Miss, this really isn't a good time, I suggest you come back later. Why don't you wait outside until we're finished here and once we've got Mr Richards settled you can come back in?"

"Do you really think that I'm going to leave my fiancé alone with the likes of you? My god, you're a doctor – you're supposed to heal not cause more pain."

Chloe's whole demeanour changed when she saw the tears pooling in V's eyes and rapidly spilling over to fall down his cheeks. V was a proud man who didn't show his emotions so for him to be crying like that was simply heartbreaking. She couldn't begin to imagine how much pain he must have been in and she knew then that she couldn't leave him, no matter what happened between them she'd stay with him whilst he was in the hospital.

"It's alright baby, I'm here – I won't let them hurt you anymore."

When V heard Chloe's voice he fought back through the pain to try and see who it was that was gently wiping away his tears and calling him baby. It sounded like Chloe and it smelt like Chloe, but it couldn't have been her. He'd only met her the once and there was no way that she'd be there with him, it simply wasn't possible, but when his eye's finally focused on her face he saw that it was possible. Chloe was there, holding his hand and gently stroking his cheek. Turning his head to kiss her fingers, he managed a brief smile before the doctor once again prodded his arm sending shooting pains from his wrist right up to his shoulder.

"Right that's enough, get out and leave him alone." Chloe was furious, despite all the painkilling drugs that the doctor had available he was insisting on examining V's arm without even giving him entanox. Just looking at the smarmy, condescending little man was making her knuckles itch and she longed to punch him right in his weasely little face. Not that that would do much good, in fact with the police officers still guarding V's door it'd probably get her arrested but it would certainly be worth it just to wipe the smile of his face.

"Miss, we need to get this wound redressed and your fiancé isn't being very cooperative. I can assure you that this all looks a lot worse than it actually is."

"It's Dr actually, not Miss and I can assure you Dr Matthews, that if you don't step away from my fiancé right this instance that you'll have a malpractice suit slapped on your ass so damn fast it'll make your head spin. Now get the fuck away from him and leave us alone. I'll sort his arm out and you can be sure I'll be speaking to the hospital board about this. By the time I'm finished with you, you'll be lucky if you're even allowed in a hospital never mind get to work in one."

By now Vince was in agony, the pain shooting up his arm was horrendous and he was trying his best to stay conscious but he could tell he was fighting a loosing battle. He could still just about feel Chloe's cool hand gently stroking his face but her voice was echoey and distant.

"Just let it go baby, I'll take care of you." Chloe knew that what she had to do for V would be intensely painful, the wound on his arm was already seeping through the bandages and as cruel as it sounded she wanted the big man to pass out. At least that way she'd be able to do the majority of the clean up without putting him through anymore pain. Plus it'd give her more time to think of how she was going to tell him about Jesse and the rest of the team.

Chloe was just putting away the tape and throwing the rubbish in the bin when V's eye's started to flutter and he slowly came to. This was the moment that she'd been dreading for the past few hours, ever since she'd found out about Jesse and she didn't have a clue where to begin.

Sitting in the chair next to Vince, Chloe reached out to gently take hold of his good hand, she had to be careful as he had his drip in that wrist but she needed to be touching him when she told him that his friend was dead and his other friends had run and left him.

"Where are they Chloe? Where's Dom and Mia?" It wasn't that V wasn't grateful that Chloe was there or even that he didn't want to see her but he needed to know that Dom and Mia had gotten away ok. Dom was his best friend and Mia, well he loved Mia, and he needed to know that they'd both escaped from the police after the helicopter had taken him away.

"Mexico Vince, they're heading to Mexico. Mia called me from a phone booth somewhere between here and the border and told me where they were headed; they've got Letty and Leon with them as well."

"Something went wrong V, I don't have all the details yet but Jesse was killed in a drive by shooting at the house, the police said something about motorbikes and the Trans but I didn't catch it all." Chloe's heart damn near broke when she saw the tears once again pooling in V's eyes, the last thing in the world she wanted to do was hurt him more but she knew that she had to tell him everything she knew.

"The doctor I spoke to said that Jesse put up a good fight but he'd lost too much blood by the time the paramedics got there. She left him V, Mia called for an ambulance and left him. If she'd stayed with him and kept the pressure on his wounds then he'd have stood a chance but she left him to die. How could she do that?"

It wasn't long before Chloe was crying along with Vince, crying for the sweet innocent young man who'd lost his life because Mia Toretto had, for some unknown reason, left him bleeding and dying on the sidewalk. The same Mia Toretto who wanted to be a doctor had run at the first sign of trouble and had left her friend, a boy who was practically her baby brother, dying and alone. Chloe knew that she'd never forgive Mia as long as she lived and she just hoped that one day she'd get the chance to tell her just what she thought of her.

Chloe hadn't known Jesse all that long, only a few months, but she'd fallen in love with him the first day that she'd met him. There was nothing sexual about their relationship but he was the kindest, sweetest guy she knew and he was a total breath of fresh air for her at a time when her life was at an all time low. She'd first met him 4 months after her parents had been killed and she'd been on the verge of packing up and leaving LA, heading back to London when Mia had invited her to join the team at the beach for a BBQ. She'd had such a great time and Jesse had made such an impact on her that she'd decided to stay in LA and give it just one more chance, now that she didn't have Jesse she didn't know whether she'd stay in LA or head on home but she had plenty of time to make that decision.

For now, her place was in LA with the tearstained, scruffy, tattooed mechanic that was softly snoring in the hospital bed next to her. She had no idea what tomorrow would bring, but she hoped and prayed that things would look a little clearer, a little brighter maybe in the morning.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N - Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed Chapter 1 (Takerlover, I Heart Tinkerbell, Splendid, Sparkly Green and Amarantha) it's great to know that people are reading and enjoying. To those who didn't review, please take a few seconds to review this chapter to let me know what you think, if you hate it - tell me why. I can't ever improve as an author without constructive criticism.**

**Tinkerbell - Karma is on a temporary hold at the moment, this version of Moving On will be very different to the original, not just in writing style but content so until it's up and finished I'm not posting anymore of Karma, it just wouldn't make sense. Don't worry though - I've not forgotten about it and I will post it once this story is finished.**

**As usual I don't own anything you recognise from the film, everything else is my own idea and/or creation so please don't steal them and incorporate them into your own fics. It makes you look lazy as a writer and no one wants that reputation.**

**Read and Review people - you know you want to!**

Chapter 2

It was the strangest feeling that woke Vince up, he felt totally trapped but completely secure. All the way down his body he could feel the soft, pliable warmth of what could only be Chloe. Her legs tangled in his; the thin scratchy hospital blanket pooled around their feet, a thick, soft heavy blanket tucked around the pair of them, covering them from chest to feet.

He could feel the soft, gentle exhales on his neck as Chloe slept, her arms wrapped tightly around his body, one tucked against his side and under his shoulder and the other stretched across his waist and tucked into the waist band of his boxers. Never in his life had been so grateful to have been wearing underwear. He was all too aware of the various tubes, drains and drips in his body but he'd be forever indebted to whoever had allowed him to keep his dignity and his underwear.

As Vince slowly came to the delicious, pressure of Chloe's slender frame on his body turned to pain, excruciating, 'kill me now' pain. It started at his toes and radiated up to the top of his head and nothing he did could ease it. Not counting to 4 in his head, wriggling his toes or imagining Chloe naked on the hood of his car could ease the searing pain that was coursing through his body. The only part of him that didn't hurt was his gunshot wound. The weight of Chloe on his damaged muscles was oddly comforting; the pressure on his stitches eased the horrific pain and soothed his battered body. Now if only he could do something about the rest of him he'd be ok.

"V baby, what's wrong?"

Chloe had been fast asleep, snuggled up with her friend when she'd felt him tensing and shaking under her. She'd tried moving away from him but his uninjured arm had quickly tightened around her, preventing her from moving more than a couple of inches.

"It hurts." V was in so much pain he could barely manage to speak so his voice was nothing more than a whimper. He wasn't sure if Chloe had heard him or not but he knew there was no way he could speak any louder. The pain in his arm got worse with every moment and he longed for the oblivion of unconsciousness.

"It's alright V, I'll call the nurse, just hang on."

It only took a few minutes for the nurse to answer the call buzzer but for V and Chloe it felt like a lifetime. There was nothing Chloe could do for the big man apart from hold him and comfort him and never in her life had Chloe felt so useless. Here she was a qualified doctor, in one of the most medically advanced countries in the world and all she could do was offer physical comfort and gently brush away the tears of a man who was undoubtedly in agony.

Luckily for both Chloe and V the nurse that answered the call wasn't the one that she'd kicked the previous day. Chloe was mortified by her behaviour and knew that she needed to apologise but for now, her first priority was to Vince. The big man needed her more than a bitchy nurse needed an apology.

"Chloe," the morphine had left V feeling like a big, fluffy pussycat and he damn near purred as he felt Chloe nuzzling his neck. She'd stayed with him the whole time the nurse was sorting out his injection, stroking his hair away from his face and constantly telling him it would be ok, encouraging him to squeeze her hand when the pain got too much for him. It was only when the injection had fully taken effect that Chloe had prised herself out of his grip and moved to sit on the chair next to the bed. As soon as she'd gone he'd missed the softness of her skin, the warmth of her body against his but mostly the smell of honeysuckle that had pervaded his sleep. He'd always loved honeysuckle, it was his mums' favourite scent and it seemed to be Chloe's as well.

"Chloe?"

"It's alright V, I'm here." Chloe carefully moved V's arm out of the way so she could sit on the side of the bed next to him. Even though she'd spent most of the night lying on him she was still frightened of hurting him. It had been just after the nightshift had come on that she'd gotten into bed with him. She'd been quite happy sitting in the chair beside him watching him sleep when he'd started crying and shaking. He'd seemed absolutely terrified and nothing she did have been enough to calm him down. It was in desperation that she climbed into his bed and laid by his side to comfort him. A few minutes of her running her fingers through his hair and rubbing tiny circles on the back of his hand with her thumb was all it had taken for his breathing to even out and for him to fall back into a dreamless sleep. She had no idea how she'd managed to end up so tightly wrapped round him or who had covered them up with a blanket, she was just thankful that V had managed to sleep through the night without anymore nightmares.

The pain was evident in V's eyes when he looked at Chloe – she'd never seen anyone look so completely broken and defeated in her life. The big man was guarded at the best of times and any emotions other than anger and suspicion were extremely rare for V but as he looked at Chloe she could see everything he was going through. The fear of what would happen next, the heartbreak at losing Jesse and the almost total disbelief that he'd been left behind.

"It's really you isn't it?" As much as V knew that Chloe was real he was desperately hoping that she was some kind of drug induced hallucination. That he hadn't really felt her silky smooth legs tangled in his, that the soft body he'd felt tucked around him and the gentle murmurings he'd heard as delicate fingers had carefully eased away the pain in his forehead had all been in his mind. If Chloe was real, then everything she'd told him the previous night was real and he simply wasn't ready to accept that yet. He'd known when he'd been put in the helicopter that Dom and Mia would run, leave him to face the police by himself but knowing something was going to happen and it actually happening were two totally different things. Dominic was his best friend, the man he'd stood beside through thick and thin and Mia, well he wasn't exactly sure what Mia was to him but he knew that he loved her, always had and until Brian had arrived on the scene he'd thought he always would. Brian, V's fists clenched at the mere thought of the man who'd wrecked everything, brought his entire life crashing down around him and caused the team to abandon him. The same man who'd ruined his entire life had also saved it and that was something that would take a long time for V to accept.

"Yeah, V – it's really me." Chloe had never felt so totally helpless in her entire life. Her job was to cure people, mend their broken bodies and send them on their way but there was nothing she could do for Vince. Sure she could redress his wounds and take out his stitches when it came to it but there was nothing she could do to mend his broken spirit.

Chloe was just finishing combing out her long blonde hair when she heard the unmistakable voice of the weasel doctor. She'd not intended on leaving the bathroom door open but V had wanted to keep talking to her and she wasn't able to hear him with the door closed.

"Ah, you're awake Mr Richards, that's good to see. It'll make it a lot easier for me to assess the damage to your arm."

Chloe watched from the bathroom doorway as the doctor crossed the room and stood next to Vince's bed.

"Can I help you, Doctor Matthews?" As she spoke Chloe moved towards the doctor, taking great pleasure in the look on his face when he realised just who it was that was speaking to him.

"I thought I'd made it perfectly clear yesterday that I don't want you anywhere near my fiancé and that I didn't want you treating him in any way.

"You shouldn't be in here – visiting hours don't start for another 2 hours." Dr Matthews had hoped that he'd be able to get in, deal with his patient and leave before the crazy English girl arrived. He hadn't counted on Chloe staying in Vince's room overnight.

"Did you honestly expect me to leave Vince here by himself overnight after the stunt you pulled yesterday? I don't know how it works here in the States but in England vowing to deliberately inflict pain on your patients isn't part of the Hippocratic Oath. Now I suggest you leave before I call my attorney and take out a TRO to prevent you from coming anywhere near me or Vince."

Vince didn't know quite what to think; the slender 5ft 2in girl that he barely knew was defending him in a way that had never happened before. He'd never seen anyone cut to shreds in such a way before and it was more than a little comforting that she was on his side. He didn't like to think what would happen if she ever felt the need to glare and speak to him like that. She reminded him of his mother and he'd always hated it when his mom was upset with him. Just listening to the way Chloe was standing up for him made V feel more at ease with the rest of the team abandoning him. None of them would have stood up for him, well, maybe Le would but that all depended on how bloody V's arm was at the time. Le wasn't a big fan of blood and even the mention of tampons and periods was enough to turn him a very delicate shade of green. Mia would have cried along with him and insisted that the doctors knew best, Letty would have slapped him round the head and told him not be such a baby and Dom would have left the room as soon as the doctor came in. At least Chloe had stepped in the previous day when the doctor was torturing him and had prevented more torture that morning.

When the doctor turned tail and fled, V turned his attention back to the young girl that was standing by his bed side, one hand protectively placed on V's bandaged arm and the other buried in his hair, the turquoise painted nails gently scraping his sensitive scalp.

For the next two and a half weeks Chloe didn't leave Vince's side. She stayed with him whilst he had his dressings changed, smuggled him in extra food from the vending machines when his stomach growled overnight and helped him to clean up when he decided he smelt more than was appropriate for a living, breathing man.

Every night Chloe would settle down in V's bed, wrap her arms around him as he snuggled into her chest and listen to him as he told her things he'd never told anyone before. He told her how his father had beaten him and his mom for years before his mom had finally got the courage to leave, only to die 3 years later in a car accident. He'd been 15 when she died and Dom's dad had taken him in. 5 years later Mr Toretto had been killed and Vince had yet again found himself without a family. When Dom went to prison for attacking Kenny Linder Vince had become Mia's father, older brother and best friend all in one. He hadn't wanted to take on all of that responsibility; at only 20 it was almost too much running the garage but he didn't really have any choice. Anthony Toretto was the nearest thing to a real dad he'd ever had and he owed it to him to make sure that Mia was ok.

For 2 years Vince had run around after Mia, making sure she got to classes on time, picking her up from her friends when she'd drunk too much to drive home and holding her hair back when she threw up in the gutter. The two years without Dom to help him had been the hardest two years of his life but he'd managed, he'd had to. The only other alternative was for Mia to be fostered and there was no way Vince was letting that happen.

Chloe told Vince about her life before they met at the beach. She'd been born in LA and moved to England when she was just 2. Her father owned a successful chain of hotels and was expanding into the UK. She'd married her college sweetheart when she was 18, just before she started university and for 4 years they'd been ridiculously happy together. The happiness hadn't lasted and Chloe had divorced James when she was just 22 after she caught him having sex on the kitchen table with her younger sister, Nicky. Now, 3 years later, she was almost able to see the funny side to her sister's bare ass bouncing up and down on her husband but at the time it was the single most devastating thing she'd ever seen.

Chloe had only just qualified as a doctor when she got the phone call that changed her life forever. After she'd gotten divorced her parents had returned to LA, taking her sister with her – the scandal had been too much for their mother and she'd not been able to stay in England any longer than necessary. They'd only been in LA for a few months when they were killed on the way home from a charity dinner. Nicky had decided at the last minute not to go, so in just a few short hours Chloe's family had been reduced to one other member, the lying, cheating conniving bitch of a sister that she'd vowed never to speak to again.

Vince didn't know what to say, he'd known when he met Chloe at the beach that day that something was off with her but he had no idea how much she'd been through.

"So, where's your sister now?" Chloe had been with Vince almost constantly since she'd arrived and he'd never even heard her mention her sister before now, let alone met her. A very giggly red head had been in with some clothes for her but apart from that Chloe hadn't seen or spoken to anyone other than Vince and the medical staff.

"I don't know baby, I just don't know." The last thing Chloe wanted to talk about was her sister but she felt that she owed it to Vince to tell him the truth. He'd been honest with her about everything that had happened in his childhood and she wanted to repay his faith in her.

"I've no idea where she is, we're not exactly on speaking terms at the moment. I found out that James moved to LA earlier this year and they've been seeing each other. I threw her out when I found out and that was the last I saw of her." Chloe didn't realise she'd started crying until she felt V turn is her arms and his calloused fingers brush against her cheeks, wiping away her tears as best he could.

"Please don't cry Chloe, they're not worth it, they betrayed you and broke your mothers heart. They don't deserve any of your tears."

As V spoke, Chloe realised he was right, her ex-husband was a total bastard, probably always had been and she was sure he was just using her sister. She had no idea why but she didn't really care, her sister had made her choice when she slept with him and now she had to live with the consequences of her actions.

"Come and lie with me Chloe, let me hold you." V leant forward so that Chloe could move from behind him and lie down next to him. He'd never been one to initiate physical contract with the girls he'd dated, hell he didn't think he'd ever just held a girl but there was something about Chloe, some barely visible vulnerability, that made him want to reach out and hold her.

Chloe carefully untangled her legs from around Vince and shuffled around to lie next to him. Although she'd spent every night with him in her arms this was the first time that he'd held her, the first time that he'd been the one offering comfort. As she rested her head on his chest she reached out and gently traced the tattoos on his upper right arm. She was fascinated by them and spent many nights staring at them, just drinking in the detail and intricacies of the design, grateful that the injuries to his arm hadn't cut into the ink at all. It would have been criminal for such beautiful work to have been damaged. Criminal was probably the wrong word for it as that's exactly what his actions had been that had lead to him getting injured in the 1st place. Vince was, as Sgt Tanner took great pains to remind her, a violent career criminal, a thug. Chloe really didn't care about his opinion of Vince. She knew all about the less savoury aspects of his life but she'd also seen for herself the kind, gentle side that he kept well hidden from the outside world. She had no doubt that he was capable of extreme violence but she knew that it would never be focussed at her. Vince was a thug but he wasn't an animal.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N – Thanks for Takerlover and Sparkly Green for reviewing my last chapter, and to Amarantha, Splendid and Lilshorty for adding Moving On to your story alert list. For those of you who are reading but not reviewing I hope you're reading the story as much as I am writing it.**

**Chapter 3**

Sgt Tanner stood in the doorway watching the young couple as they slept in the narrow hospital bed. Officer O'Connor had led him to believe that Vince Richards was interested in Mia Toretto and they'd not had any record of him being involved with anyone else but just looking at the way he was holding the slender blonde, cradling her in his powerful arms made him wonder if maybe they'd been wrong. When he'd first met the girl the day of the incident he'd been convinced that she was lying about her relationship with the injured thug, he'd never heard Brian talk about her and she didn't seem the kind of girl to be interested in Richards but as soon as he'd seen them together he'd started having second thoughts. The way that she'd dealt with the medical staff when she'd first been allowed to see her 'fiancé' had left him in little doubt that there was something between them. Whether it was the relationship they claimed he wasn't sure about but there was definitely something there.

He chuckled quietly to himself as he remembered the look on Dr Matthews face when Chloe had shouted at him. He was the type of doctor who thought he was God and being told off the way he was in front of his colleagues really didn't go down well. He'd never seen anyone defended the way that Vince Richards was and he couldn't help but feel a little jealous of the injured man. He was reluctant to disturb the young couple but he needed to speak to Vince and Chloe, he needed to tell them that without Officer O'Connor's statement and with no sign of whoever had shot him the LAPD and FBI had no choice but to stop investigating him and remove the armed guard from the door.

"Excuse me, Mr Richards, Miss Armstrong – sorry to disturb you but I need to have a few words with you both."

"It's DR not Miss, don't you people ever listen." If there was one thing that Chloe hated it was people not listening to what she told them. She'd lost track of the number of times she's corrected people when they called her Miss. Ok, so she wasn't licensed to practice medicine in the US but she was still a qualified doctor.

"I apologise, DR Armstrong, but I still need to talk to you and Mr Richards – there are a few things I'd like to get cleared up."

"Fine – but please don't expect me to get up, it's been a long few weeks for V and I don't want to wake him up. I'm assuming I don't need my attorney for this discussion?" Chloe was more than happy to talk to Sgt Tanner but she wasn't stupid, if she thought that there was any chance of anything she said being used against her or Vince she'd have insisted on her attorney being present. As Tanner had no way of proving that Vince was involved in the heist or that they'd lied about their relationship she was happy to talk to him without legal representation.

"Oh no Dr Armstrong, you won't be needing your lawyer, I just want to clear up a few things." Sgt Tanner really wasn't looking forward to this conversation but he knew he had no choice. They simply didn't have the evidence to justify the investigation on Vince Richards and the FBI had decided to focus their efforts on finding Brian O'Connor and Dominic Toretto. They were convinced that Brian had turned and was running with Dom and if they found one, they'd find the other.

Vince had woken up when Tanner came into the room and had started to gently stroke Chloe's hip with his thumb to let her know that he was awake and listening to everything that was being said. His thumb stilled when Tanner first spoke and he didn't relax again until he heard the detective say that Chloe didn't need her lawyer present. He didn't have a lawyer of his own and he had no way of affording one so he was relieved that they didn't need to wait for Chloe's to arrive. Whatever Tanner had to say he obviously wasn't about to charge them and that was all that Vince cared about. If, by some miracle, he managed to get away with what he'd done he was definitely turning his back on his old lifestyle. He'd nearly paid with his life this time and he knew that he wouldn't be so lucky again. As it was he wasn't sure how much use he'd have of his arm or whether he'd ever be able to use it again and he couldn't put himself through that again. The scars alone would be enough to remind him not to do anything that stupid again and if he ever felt tempted he was sure that Chloe would slap him into next week. It was frightening how much of his future he was planning around her but whenever he thought of what he'd do when he left the hospital, where he'd live and who he'd work for he always saw Chloe by his side. Whether he liked it or not she'd found her way into his heart and there was nothing he could or would do to change that.

"Ok then Dr. Armstrong, how about we start at the beginning. How did you and Mr Richards meet?" Sgt Tanner had dragged the hard red, plastic chair over to the bed and was trying his best to get comfortable for the interview, it wasn't that easy as the chairs were designed to be as uncomfortable to keep visits as short as possible so that the patients could get plenty of rest but he was doing his best.

"We were introduced by Mia Toretto, Dominic's sister. Vince lives with the Toretto's and Mia and I have some classes together. She's doing pre-med and I'm on a conversion course so I can practice medicine in the States." Chloe had half hoped that Tanner would be satisfied with that short version of how she and Vince met but one look at his face told her that he wanted more details, probably so he could quiz Vince on them later and try and trip him up.

"It was just about 4mths after my parents were killed, Mia decided to invite me to a BBQ that Dominic and his friends were having. Things weren't exactly going well for me and Mia thought I needed a change of scenery." If truth be told things weren't just 'not going well', Chloe was ready to give up and go home. In fact she'd been surfing the 'net trying to book a flight back to England when Mia had called. She'd fallen out with her sister and had had enough of life in LA, England was her home and she missed it desperately despite the traumatic events of the last few years of her life there.

Chloe snickered to herself as the middle aged policeman gave up trying to get comfortable on his chair and decided to lean against the wall instead. She knew from past experience just how uncomfortable those chairs were and she was impressed that he'd lasted so long.

"So, if you've known Mr Richards for over a year, why didn't we know anything about you before you turned up here? Officer O'Connor never mentioned you and all the surveillance footage we have shows your fiancé all over Miss Toretto." Tanner was certain that Chloe was lying about the length and intensity of her relationship with Vince but as yet he had no way of proving it.

"Look – Dominic hates me ok, he thinks I'm a lesbian because I wouldn't sleep with him so hearing that I'm engaged to his best friend wouldn't exactly sit well with him. Dominic is an arrogant bastard and if he thought that V was getting something he wasn't he'd fire him and kick him out of the house. Vince is just Catholic enough not to want to live together before we get married and Dom would never give him a reference so he could get another job." Lying to the police didn't sit well with her but she knew that she had no choice if she was going to keep Vince safe. His friends had abandoned him and she was all he had left, his only chance at staying out of jail and actually making something of his life.

"If you'd had any kind of surveillance of Vince you'd have known all about me but you were obviously more interested in Dominic than my boy." Chloe was desperately hoping that what she's assumed was actually true. From what Vince had told her Brian was definitely more interested in Dominic than the rest of the team and she was praying that that was how he'd reported things back to his superiors. If not then both she and Vince were sunk and she'd be visiting Vince in jail once she finished her own sentence for perverting the course of justice. The dejected and crestfallen look on Tanners face brought hope into Chloe's heart, by the looks of things the police hadn't been watching each team member individually so it was possible that she and Vince might just get away with things.

"I don't mean to be rude, but was there anything else? I've got a busy day ahead of me and I'd like to get some more sleep before I have to get on." Chloe wasn't sure how much longer she could stay in bed with Vince without squirming, his hand had worked its way under the hem of her t-shirt and his calloused fingers were teasing the sensitive skin on the underside of her breasts. If Sgt Tanner hadn't been there she'd have smacked his hand away, but that wasn't an option, what happy engaged girl doesn't let her fiancé touch her up in bed? She'd just have to lie there and hope that Tanner left before Vince's went much further.

"I think we're pretty much done, Dr Armstrong – I still need to talk to Mr Richards, bring him up to speed on a few things but that can wait till later." Tanner knew that Chloe and Vince were lying, he could feel it in his bones but he couldn't prove it. Unless the truck driver or Officer O'Connor came forward he'd never manage to break their story. He just hoped that the pretty blonde knew what she was doing, in his experience providing alibis for violent thugs almost always ended in heartbreak.

"I've got some things to do this afternoon so if you want to talk to Vince in private that'll probably be your best chance." Chloe had been putting off her dreaded task for the past 3 weeks but she knew it couldn't wait any longer. The police had already informed Jesse's dad of his death but he didn't know any details and Chloe needed to know what he wanted to happen about a funeral. Chloe already knew from conversations with Jesse that he was Catholic, not a very good Catholic but Catholic none the less and she was sure he'd have wanted a Funeral Mass but she felt it only right to check with his dad.

"It's ok, I'm awake now so ask what you need to know" Vince had listened to everything that Tanner had said to Chloe and he knew only too well that the man didn't believe their relationship was real. The way he kept pushing for more details made Vince realise that drastic action was needed if Tanner was ever going to accept their 'engagement'. Silently praying that Chloe didn't slap him he lifted her chin with his fingers from where she'd been snuggled into his chest and kissed her. Not just any old kiss either, it was the sort of kiss that he'd dreamt of giving her ever since the first time he'd met her. There'd been something about her that day on the beach that had stayed with him and he knew that if he didn't kiss her now he may never get another chance and that would be something he'd regret it for the rest of his life.

What started out as a gentle kiss soon became more passionate as Vince traced Chloe's mouth with his tongue, when it became obvious she was too stunned to react he bit down on her bottom lip and forced his way into her mouth when she gasped in surprise. It was then that Chloe came alive. Fisting his left hand in her hair he pulled her closer to him as his tongue explored every crevice of her mouth. Chloe felt as if she was on fire, her breasts were straining at their lacy confines and she was desperate to feel his bare chest on hers, to be able to rub her breasts all over his body and with any luck feel his hot mouth closing over them as he bit down on them the way he'd bitten down on her bottom lip.

Chloe whimpered at the visions her thoughts were causing and the feel of Vince's strong thigh under her. Even through her shorts he could feel how much she wanted him, how ready she was for him after just one kiss. It'd been a long time since he'd been with a girl, he wasn't stupid enough to sleep with the skanks from the races despite what Mia thought, preferring to let them go down on him or jerk off over their silicone enhanced tits.

Just as he was working out how to get Chloe's clothes off burning lungs forced the pair apart. Staring into Chloe's eyes he saw a totally different person to the one he'd seen since he'd been in the hospital, gone was the lost, grief stricken look he was so used to seeing in its place passion and pure unadulterated lust. It had been a long time since a woman had looked at him like that, wanted him for what he could do for them rather than because he could get them close to Dominic.

"Ahem" Sgt Tanner didn't know where to put himself but he knew that if he didn't stop the young couple soon he was going to be seeing a lot more of them that he needed. As you're awake and obviously feeling better Mr Richards perhaps we could have our little chat now."

Even Tanners interruption didn't soften Vince's throbbing cock, he was so hard it was almost painful and now that he knew that they weren't going to be able to finish what they'd started he felt a familiar rage course through his veins. Chloe sensed the change in the man beneath her and smiled down at him, "later" she murmured as she brushed her soft lips against his ear. "We'll finish this later, I promise."

Carefully untangling herself from the frustrated man she smiled at him again as he tried to grab her with his hand. Unfortunately for Vince it was his damaged arm that he used and the pain that shot up his arm brought tears to his eyes. Chloe instantly stilled as she saw the pained look on V's face, she knew how much he hated having to think through every single movement and she couldn't wait till he was pain free again. Reaching forward she stroked his shaggy hair away from his eyes and kissed his forehead, "I won't be long baby – I promise".

"If you gentlemen will excuse me, I need to go home and get cleaned up." Chloe had a difficult day ahead of her and none of the clothes she had with her would be suitable. Her tasks called for something a lot more professional that jeans and a t-shirt.

Another brief kiss from Vince, a handshake from Sgt Tanner and Chloe was on her way out of the hospital on her way to what would probably be the worst appointment she'd ever had to keep, well since she'd buried her parents. Jesse had been gone for 3 weeks and today Chloe was making her way to Folsom State Prison. She'd had to make special arrangements with the Warden to get in to see Mr Andrews as she wasn't on his visitors list but she had to see him face to face, discuss with him properly what he wanted for his only son's funeral.

* * *

Back in Vince's room Tanner was getting more and more frustrated, he could feel the case slipping through his fingers and he knew there was nothing he could do about it. It didn't matter what he asked the injured mechanic he couldn't get anything out of him, all he kept saying was that he didn't want to press charges about his gunshot wound and he had no idea where Dominic was. With no sign of O'Connor or the truck driver Tanner had no choice but to tell Vince he was no longer under investigation and that he was free to leave the State should he so wish.

Vince couldn't believe it when Tanner admitted they had nothing, he'd been quietly confident that the truck driver wouldn't come forward but he'd never expected Brian to disappear as well. From what Tanner said he was now considered a rogue cop, an outlaw and that in itself was worrying. It meant that the FBI would stop at nothing to find him, force him to give evidence against the team and if that happened V's life was over. There was no love lost between the two of them and even though Brian had saved his life he felt sure that he'd give him up in a heartbeat.

* * *

"Dr Armstrong, Dr Armstrong – can you wait for a second please?"

Chloe turned to see Kirsty, a petite brunette who'd gone out of her way to be kind to Vince. Chloe was the first one to admit he wasn't the easiest of patients but it didn't matter what he threw at Kirsty; sometimes quite literally, she always made sure that he was comfortable and well fed. It wasn't at all unusual for her to pop in before her shift started with a plastic container of whatever she'd cooked for dinner the night before. Her boyfriend was a construction worker and she knew what it was like trying to keep him fed so she knew that Vince must be half starved on the ridiculously small hospital meals he was being given.

"What is it? What's happened?" Nurses never ran in the hospital, never - it was one of the many unwritten rules of nursing, unless of course there was an emergency in which case look out as you were in danger of being flattened by nurses rushing to assist the code blue.

"I'm so glad you're back, Mr Richards has been, well he's been a complete pain the past couple of hours – Dr Matthews went in to see him and I'm not sure what he said but Vince has been talking about discharging himself 'seeing as she's not coming back'"

Chloe couldn't believe it, as if her day hadn't been bad enough she now had to deal with the legendary Coyote in full flow. Everything had gone against her so far and she really wasn't in the mood to deal with Vince sulking – it wasn't as if it was her fault she'd been so long. The flight from LA to Sacramento had been late departing which meant that she was late getting to Folsom, the warden was quite conveniently unavailable which meant she had to wait to get his confirmation that she was in fact allowed in to see Mr Andrews. She'd then had to be searched before she could go in despite the visit being a non-contact visit so her chances of slipping him something were zero and then she'd missed her flight back to LA. All in all she'd been gone for over 8 hours and although she could fully understand why V thought she'd abandoned him she had thought that he knew her better than that by now.

Vince was curled up on his side picking at his bandage when Chloe entered the room. His water jug was lying on the floor opposite him, the large stain spread across the wall evidence enough that he could throw just as well with his left arm as with his right. His back stiffened as she entered the room, he knew it was her, he always knew when she was close to him and it pained him to think that he'd have to learn to cope without her. He'd been perfectly alright without her in his life before the 'accident' but he wasn't sure he could manage without her now. Independent, lonesome Coyote – didn't need anyone, brought to his knees by a blonde with a love for pop rocks and Cheese and Jelly sandwiches.

Chloe could tell the instant she walked in the door that she'd have to do some fast talking to get V to understand where she'd been all day, she'd barely left his side for 3 weeks so for her to have been gone all day would take some explaining. She'd not mentioned anything of her plans for the day, she knew that V would try and stop her going and they'd only end up arguing about it. Dan Andrews had waited long enough to hear the details of his only son's death and Chloe wasn't going to make him wait any longer.

"Look V, I'm sorry I was gone so long – I know you must have been worried about me."

"Worried? Worried? Why would I be worried what you were doing all day? It's not as if we're engaged or anything? You want to get some personal time for a booty call then who am I to stand in your way?" V hasn't meant to get defensive with her, he really hadn't but as soon as he'd heard her voice he'd realised just how much he'd missed her. He should have known that the show that morning was just for Tanner and the thought that she'd gotten it on with some other guy made him practically murderous. Even watching Mia kissing Brian was preferable to Chloe realising he actually cared for her.

"A booty call? You think I've been gone all day on a booty call?" Chloe was trying so hard to be patient but V wasn't making it easy, everything she'd been through that day was still so fresh in her mind and he thought she'd been off having sex, he couldn't have been further from the truth if he'd tried.

V struggled off the bed and pulled himself up to his full height, he'd never hit a woman in his life but he knew that he could be an intimidating bastard when he put his mind to it and if scaring Chloe was what it took to get her to leave then that was ok by him. She looked fantastic, he'd never seen a simple black pant suit and white blouse look so good on anyone and being in the same room as her was killing him. He needed her gone as soon as possible.

"Well, sure – I mean you got all riled up this morning and didn't get a chance to follow through, a slut like you must have plenty of guys she can call on when the mood takes her."

"A slut, is that what you really think of me?" The hurt was obvious in Chloe's voice as she tried not to cry, she knew that V was upset that she'd been gone for so long but a part of her still wondered if he really meant what he was saying, if his behaviour that morning had simply been to keep Tanner off his back.

"Well, looks like a slut, walks like a slut, smells like a slut – not exactly gonna be a fucking nun now is it?" V was ignoring the look on Chloe's face, her big blue eyes rapidly filling with tears as he shouted at her. He'd gone too far to stop now, so all he could do is carry on – the sooner she left, the sooner he could discharge himself and hope he could get drunk enough to forget the way she was looking at him.

"You've done your bit now so you can just fuck off, you've done what Mia wanted you to do so you fuck off back to your pathetic little life. Did it make you feel good huh? Looking after the poor crippled Vince, keeping the nasty doctors away from him? Well, I'll tell you something lady, I don't need you – I never needed you. You were just a warm body to lie on and the chance of a quick fuck, but I don't sleep with sluts, never know what you I might catch."

Chloe was crumbling before V's eyes, it was killing him to see the effect his words were having on her but he had to keep going. There was only one he could think of to say that would get her running from his room and he had no choice but to say it. If he didn't he was going to end up on his knees begging her to forgive him and Vince Richards didn't apologise, never had done and he wasn't about to start now.

"What's the matter Chloe? Can't think of any big words to try and talk me round? Come on, I'm just a mechanic not on your level at all – you being a Doctor and all. No wonder your husband fucked your sister, you're so fucking passive it's ridiculous, men like a woman with a bit of spark you know."

If Vince had had the courage to look Chloe in the eye for his last comment he'd have known when to duck, but as he was looking out of the window it was a complete shock when his chart hit him on the back of his head.

Whirling round to look at her his heart broke even further as he watched the tears rapidly making their way down her pale face.

"What the fuck was that for? What's wrong – truth hurt does it?"

Chloe was beyond angry, in fact she couldn't remember a time when she'd ever been this upset and when she got angry things tended to get broken.

"The truth, the truth? You wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and bit you on that fat ass of yours. You think I'm a slut? Well, that's rich coming from the guy whose own housemates refer to him as a man-whore and who every fucking slut in LA has been up close and personal to."

V quickly realised he'd pushed things too far when Chloe started pacing, her arms gesticulating wildly as she started to rant – she reminded him of his mother when she got cross and when Miriam Richards was cross plates got thrown, dinners got burnt and endless evenings were spent in absolute silence trying to avoid yet another one of her tirades.

"You wanna know where I've been today? Do you? Well, guess what Mr 'I'm a big man I can take care of myself' Richards I'm not gonna tell you. You already think the worst so what does it matter where I've been. You think I've been whoring it up on some booty call, well that's just perfect. After everything I've done for you, you don't know me at all. Well fuck you Vincent, you don't need me fine, I'll go – cause god knows I've got plenty of guys I can call for another 'booty call'."

"So if you weren't on a booty call where were you? What the fuck was so important that you've been gone all day dressed like that?" Vince desperately wanted to say how good Chloe looked, how her shirt showed just enough of the curve of her breasts to look sexy without looking slutty but he knew she'd never listen. After what she'd had to listen to from him it'd be a miracle if she listened to anything he had to say ever again.

"You don't deserve to know Vince, you've already made up your mind, now get the fuck out of my way so I can get the rest of my stuff and leave."

"Tell me where you were and I'll move." Vince wasn't going to move until Chloe admitted that he'd been right all along and she'd been off 'whoring it up' while he was lying in his hospital bed. He didn't know why it mattered to much to him where she'd been but it did, he couldn't stand the thought of another mans hands all over her, but he needed her to admit the truth.

"Move Vincent, I'm not in the mood to deal with your shit anymore today." Chloe was still struggling to accept what had happened to her that day and she knew that if she didn't get away from Vince soon she'd take all her anger out on him, anger he really didn't deserve no matter how he behaved or what he said to her.

"JUST TELL ME WHERE YOU WERE." Vince hadn't meant to get up in her face like that, he hadn't meant to shout and he hadn't meant to scare her the way that he did but he couldn't stop himself. The way she backed away from him reminded him so much of the way his mum would look just before his dad hit her and he felt sick to the pit of his stomach. His dad had always said he'd turn out like him and it looked as if he was right.

"FOLSOM, OK – I went to Folsom to see Jesse's dad."

"Oh baby no, you didn't – not by yourself?" Vince's anger rapidly faded as he realised just how badly he'd fucked up. Folsom wasn't the place for a pretty girl like Chloe and he could only guess what the guards had put her through. Dom had always refused to let Mia and Letty visit him in Lompoc because of the guards and if he'd had any idea what Chloe had been planning he'd have refused to let her go.

The tears were falling again as Chloe moved round the room grabbing the rest of her things; she couldn't stay there anymore, not now that Vince knew where she'd been. She couldn't stand to see the look she knew was plastered on his face. A man like Vince would be only too aware of what a female visitor would go through on a special visit to Folsom and she couldn't stand to be the focus of his pity.

"Baby please, tell me you didn't go by yourself?" Vince knew that he was kidding himself; Tanner hadn't mentioned anything about a prison visit so she must have gone alone. Wednesday wasn't a standard visiting day for Folsom so Chloe would have had too jump through hoops to get in and with no female staff working at the prison the male guards would have had free reign with her if she'd wanted to see Jesse's dad.

"I had to see him, had to tell him how Jesse died and find out what he wanted to happen about the funeral." Chloe was openly sobbing now and she couldn't see for the tears, when she felt V's hand on her back she turned and threw herself into his arms.

Wrapping his strong arms around her V held Chloe for what felt like hours but was in reality only a few minutes. The pain in his injured arm was immense but he couldn't hold her the way he needed to with just one arm, he needed to completely wrap her up in his embrace and if that meant he had to endure some pain then he could live with that.

"Come on girl, lets get you in the shower – wash all that Folsom grime off you, yeah?"

It took Chloe nearly an hour of scrubbing to feel even vaguely clean, not matter how hard she scrubbed she could still smell the aftershave of the guards, feel their hands as they searched her and hear the mocking tone in their voices as they asked how desperately she wanted to see Dan Andrews. Vince's gentle knock on the door shook her from her thoughts, he'd knocked to make sure she was ok every 5 minutes since she'd gotten in the shower and the concern was always obvious in his voice.

"It's time to get out Chloe; you'll use all the hot water you stay in there much longer." Vince was trying to keep his voice light, trying not to show Chloe how worried he was about her but he knew he was failing. He'd spent the past hour planning the downfall of the guards that had dared to lay their hands on his girlfriend and he knew that if he didn't get Chloe out of the shower soon, he'd end up putting his plans into action. He'd surprised himself when he first thought of Chloe as his 'girlfriend' but the more he thought about it the more he realised how good it felt. He was certainly closer to her than anyone else he'd ever shared a bed with and she'd excited him more with a simple kiss than a lot of his ex's had managed completely naked.

Two hours later Chloe was once again wrapped up in V's arms only this time they were in bed and she was finally asleep. After she'd got out of her shower V had dried her as best he could, dressed her in a very old, very faded Def Leppard t-shirt he'd found in her bag and put her to bed. His original plan had been to sleep in the plastic visitors chair all night until Chloe had started sobbing again, he'd been across the room and snuggled up in bed with her before he'd had time to think if it was a good idea or not.

Twisting his fingers in her hair he thought back to what Chloe had been through since she'd arrived at the hospital 3 weeks previously. She'd lied to the police, dropped out of her studies, given up her entire life to stay with him day and night and now, she'd been to Folsom to ask a complete stranger what he wanted for his only sons funeral. The all too familiar rage that he'd been working so hard to keep hidden bubbled to the surface as he thought of Chloe's visit to Folsom. When he'd been rubbing her dry after her shower she'd told him what the guards had done to her, what they'd made her go through just so she could get into see Jesse's dad. She'd been through all of that for a complete stranger then he'd bitched her out and ranted at her when she got back, he hadn't even given her a chance to explain just attacked her the instant she walked in the door. All because he thought that she'd realised she could do better than a no good, two bit thug like him.

"Stop it V, I know you were just upset." V hadn't realised he'd been thinking aloud until he felt Chloe's thumb brushing his cheek. She looked so small and vulnerable lying in his arms and he hated knowing that he'd made her cry. He really hadn't meant any of what he'd said but once he'd started it'd been too late to take it back.

"I'm so sorry Chloe, I never meant any of it – I was just"

Chloe's gentle kiss cut off V's apology mid-flow. She knew that V was sorry and it was written all over his face how bad he felt about it but for now all she wanted to do was sleep, it'd been a long day and she couldn't think of any better way to end it than wrapped up in V's arms.

"We'll talk about it tomorrow V, I promise."

V smirked to himself as he remembered another promise that Chloe had made him earlier that day and the way she'd felt moaning and whimpering in his arms. It all seemed like another lifetime not just a few hours and he knew they had a long way to go before it happened again but in the meantime he was going to do everything he could to keep her safe, he'd failed her at Folsom but he wasn't going to fail her again.


End file.
